Deals of the Week for September 2, 2008

Did you notice there weren’t as many coupon inserts in the Sunday paper this week? Typically, the week after a holiday, there are either less or no coupon inserts in the paper at all – nor nearly as many good deals as the previous week.

This is because grocery stores (and coupon publishers) are aware of people’s shopping habits prior to a holiday. Whether it’s Labor Day weekend, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any other holiday, people typically shop a lot during the days before the holiday… and then they don’t shop much at all the next week, because there are typically lots of leftovers.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any deals this week… of course there are! So let’s go to Target…

First off, want some cheap, or even free Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts? Pop-Tarts are on sale at Target this week, four 12-ct. boxes for $9.00. The 8/3 Kellogg’s coupon insert has two coupons for “$1.00 off 2” boxes of Pop-Tarts. The 8/17 RedPlum has another $1.00 off 2 coupon. Here’s a Target store coupon for 50 cents off one box of Pop-Tarts. Remember that Target will let you combine a manufacturer’s coupon and a store coupon, which we call “stacking.” So with two of these coupons, your four boxes will now cost you $5.

Not a terrible deal. But this week, Target will give you a $5 Target gift card for every 4 boxes of Pop-Tarts you buy! Now your 4 boxes are free!

Now, you can take your 4 free Pop-Tarts… but do you want to make this deal even sweeter? In the same Kellogg’s coupon insert from 8/3, there is a $10.00 mail-in rebate when you buy 10 or more Kellogg’s products. Now, I don’t normally do rebates unless they’re really easy (like Walgreens, where you do them online) or unless they’re high-value. $10 is a high-value rebate & worth filling out a little form for! So let’s do the math…

Buy 12 boxes of Pop-Tarts at Target and use 12 50-cent off printables and the two $1/2 manufacturer’s coupons from the 8/3 insert, and the one $1/2 manufacturer coupon from the 8/17 insert.
$27.00 – $6 in Target coupons – $3.00 manufacturer coupons = $18.00.

Your mail-in rebate will give you $10.00 back. So you’ll have paid $8.00 for 12 boxes of Pop-Tarts. Right?

WRONG! Remember, for every 4 you buy, you will get a $5 gift card to Target! Now, buying 12 boxes of Pop-Tarts will earn you three of those gift cards ($15), and Target will essentially have paid YOU $7.00 to take them home. THAT’S a great deal.

If you happen to have multiples of the Kellogg’s coupons from the paper (perhaps you get several Sunday papers, as Amy and I do) this deal will get even better and pay you even more for each of those coupons that you have.

But remember, you MUST buy 10 or more boxes on the same receipt to qualify for the Kellogg’s rebate. Not hard to do with a deal like this!

(If you haven’t saved your inserts and do the deal just with the Target coupon linked above, you’ll pay $7 for 4 boxes of Pop-Tarts and get a $5 gift card back, making them 50 cents a box. But FREE, or the store paying you to take them, is so much better… and that’s why you should save your inserts each week. Just write the date on the front and stick them in a folder. Their real value comes when they’re 1-2 months old and the coupons in them start lining up with great sales!)

Also, if you plan on printing a lot of these coupons, you should check out the Target Coupon Generator at A Full Cup, a great couponing site. Have you ever noticed that while the coupons on Target.com change every week, the expiration dates are often months away? A Full Cup keeps track of ALL the Target coupons that are currently available, and their Coupon Generator allows you to print multiple copies of them on the same page to save paper. These coupons are the same ones that you can print from Target.com, but they link to every current, unexpired Target coupon, not just the 10 or so viewable via Target.com each week. Organic Grocery Deals also maintains a similar Target coupon generator.

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Still at Target… how about some cheap Juicy Juice juice boxes – a quarter for an 8-pack? Certain flavors of 4.23 oz 8-count packs of Juicy Juice juice boxes are on sale 4 for $7.00, or $1.75 apiece. The 8/17 RedPlum insert has a Target store coupon for $1.00 off 2 Juicy Juice beverages. Head over to Nestle’s site and print 2 $1.00 off Juicy Juice manufacturer’s coupons. Stack them together, and now your 2 packs of Juicy Juice boxes will cost you $0.50 – or just .25 PER 8-PACK, a very good price for 100% juice boxes, especially with school lunches coming up. That’s only around 3 cents per box!

Now, there’s another sale running with slightly-larger juice boxes. The 6-oz. 8-count packs of Juicy Juice juice boxes are on sale 2 for $5.00. Stacking the same coupons noted above will bring your 2 packs of Juicy Juice boxes to $2.00 – or just $1.00 each. Not a bad brice, but a big difference than a quarter! This is one of those examples where you’re better off buying the slightly smaller-sized boxes, as they’re a much better value with these coupons – and with all deals like this, play close attention to the prices and sizes. We’re conditioned to buy the bigger size, thinking we’re getting the best value — but that’s often not the case with coupon deals.

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And STILL at Target, how about some free Schick disposable razors? The 8/24 SmartSource insert has a coupon for $2.00 off any Schick disposable razor. Now, if you’ve taken our class, you know what the magic item is to pair with a coupon that specifies “any” size… the trial size. Some Targets sell a 2-pack of Schick disposable razors for just 97 cents. So use this coupon, and they’ll be paying YOU to take them home. (Because this is an overage deal, make sure you are buying something else to apply the overage to. Like Pop-Tarts.)

Or, if you can’t find them there and happen to be at Wal-Mart, take this coupon there, where I am told a 10-pack of Schick razors is on sale for $1.97. Thanks to our forum member “Dirk Deal Diggler” for this tip.

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Now, how about a free bag of Iams dog or cat food? Fill out the form at startsampling.com/sm/100323/captureAddress.iphtml (you’ll have to paste that into your browser, as the site is not allowing linking) choose your type of pet, and Iams will email the coupon to you within one week. (It seems like almost every week there has been something free for pets lately. My dog will be very happy.)

Now, when’s a deal better than free? When the store pays you to shop! (You might even want to do this deal even if you don’t have a dog or cat because it’s a moneymaker — and in that case, I’d highly encourage you to donate the food to your local food pantry or animal shelter, as both of those can always use pet food.)

Check out this $5 off Iams at Target coupon. You may even want to print it now, so that you’ll have it when your Iams manufacturer’s coupon arrives. Now do the math – one manufacturer’s coupon for free Iams, stacked with one Target store coupon for $5 off when you purchase Iams… means you will get $5 off your total purchase, and a bag of free dog or cat food. My favorite kind of deal! (Note: I have received emails from some users of this site saying the deal has now expired.)

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A common myth among new couponers is that there are never coupons for organics or healthy food. Well, here’s a printable coupon for a free cup of organic yogurt! Stonyfield Farms is introducing a new brand of Greek yogurt. Click here to print a coupon good for one free 5.3 oz. cup of Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt.

(Remember, Jewel will not accept internet coupons for free items, so if you’re a Jewel shopper, you’ll have to take this to a different store to use it.)

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Lastly, you can get a free bottle of Dawn dish soap at CVS/Pharmacy this week. CVS has Dawn dish soap on sale for 99 cents, and there’s a coupon for $1.00 off Dawn Plus Hand Renewal in the most recent (8/31) coupon inserts. Now, site user Blackvanilla reports that the shelf tags still read $2.39, but all varieties of Dawn are ringing up 99 cents, as this week’s ad states. So if you have this coupon and are near a CVS this week, stop in and grab your free bottle of Dawn!